Starting in Spring of 2001, 355:102 Expository Writing II will cease to exist. Instead, it will merge with the already existing course 355:201, Discourse in the Professions. The resulting course will be called 355:201, Research in the Disciplines. The Writing Program knows this switch may cause some confusion, since some of Rutgers' colleges require 102, so we'd like to take this opportunity to explain the change and the rationale behind it.

First of all, rest assured that the new 201 is the same class as the old 102 and the old 201. The same topics are available to students, and the class retains the same emphasis on producing an independent, researched essay. So, if your college requires you to take 102, not only will you fulfill the same requirement with the new 201, but you will be taking the same class with nothing more than a new number.

Actually, the change was made, in part, to clear up some prior confusion. Originally, the only researched-based writing course was 102, but 201 was created to meet the particular disciplinary interests of students. As 201 developed into a popular course, confusion emerged over whether they were the same class and, if different, how so. What's more, some student who had taken 102 signed up for 201, only to be disturbed by the similarity to the class they had completed. The courses were merged to resolve this confusion.

The 201 homepage describes the course:

English 201 is enhanced by the variety of disciplinary interests that students bring to the course. Instructors of English 201 encourage interdisciplinarity in their courses by allowing students to pursue their areas of interest. Instructors encourage students to develop their own positions and make their own arguments through an analysis of the perspectives of other writers, and of the relationship of writers to one another

The research done in English 201, and the library skills learned in the process, help to familiarize students with the prevailing discourses in their developing area of expertise, as well as the professional indexes that they will be expected to use as sophomores or juniors in other disciplines. The use of reputable scholarly sources helps students to move into the community of thinkers and writers that they join in attending Rutgers University.

For more information on the course, and a list of topics offered in the Spring, be sure to drop by the 201 Homepage. And, in Spring of 2001, we'll be launching an extended homepage for the course with resources similar to the ones on our 101 Homepage, so be sure to drop by again in January!